by Megan West
“Yea.”
Jessica sighed. “This is really why you’re calling me?” She was definitely annoyed and Alyssa couldn’t blame her.
“I accepted,” she said in a hurry so her friend wouldn’t think she was still debating back and forth like she had been earlier. She wanted Jessica to know she was now confused on what exactly she had agreed to. She wanted the panic that had bubbled up inside her to go away.
“You did?” Jessica sounded genuinely shocked.
“Yes,” Alyssa replied. “But now I don't know if he asked me out on a date or just, I don't know, dinner.”
Jessica laughed. It was a bit mocking, but it didn’t bother Alyssa. In fact, that was something she would have expected from her. “Of course he’s asking you on a date, woman. There's no doubt in my mind about that.”
Alyssa wanted to ask how and why she was so sure. She wanted Jessica to explain the logic to her and even give her evidence based off something Philip might have said or done, but she knew it was unreasonable.
She had already taken away enough of Jessica’s time and had gotten her answer. She needed to let it go. Not everything needed to be answered, at least not right away.
“Okay,” she responded before ending the call with a sigh. She knew she shouldn’t need the constant reassurance from her friend, but the whole thing sent her emotions whirling inside her. She was nervous, excited, and scared; all bundled up into one giant emotion.
Whatever was to happen, she knew it would be interesting.
Chapter Four
Alyssa walked into her bedroom and went straight for her closet. As she looked through her clothes she knew it was pointless. She wouldn’t find anything in there that she thought was good enough to go on a date with a billionaire.
She found herself wishing they had already decided on a place so she could look it up and figure out what sort of outfit she needed to wear. As she closed her closet door and sat down at the edge of her bed she wondered briefly if she was placing too much emphasis on what to wear. He had met her at the gala and might have assumed she was wealthy. Then again, she wondered if he would be the type to judge her for not being wealthy and owning the kind of clothing she wore at the gala.
There was really nothing in her closet she wanted to or felt comfortable wearing for her first date with a man like him. She slumped down on her bed and pouted as she wished she could invite Jessica over. But she was also aware it would have been selfish and imprudent to call her friend, yet again. Then on top of that, to ask her to dump whatever she was doing to run to her aid would be more than annoying to her friend.
Maybe she was getting ahead of herself or placing too much emphasis on the clothing. Maybe it didn’t need to matter all that much.
Alyssa flopped back on the bed and stared at her ceiling. It was as plain and as white as ever. Just like before. There was no perfect answer written across it.
This was something she needed to figure it on her own. After all, the key was for her to treat this date like she would any other. But every time she thought about who she was going on a date with, she found it impossible. It seemed unfathomable that she would be meeting with the Philip Walton, so how was she supposed to treat it like any other date? If she was nervous before any date how could she not be in a near panic for this one? Now that Jessica had indeed confirmed it was a date she was going on, Alyssa felt her stomach knot into a jumbled mess whenever she thought too much on the implications of that word. Date.
It Monday afternoon when Alyssa felt her phone vibrate on her desk, but she was too busy to look at who was calling, much less was she able to actually answer the call. It wasn’t until she was packing up and getting ready to leave the office that she saw a new voice message from none other than Philip.
Her stomach squeezed and she felt the panic shoot straight up her throat. As Wednesday night approached she got more and more anxious. And now that he was calling her it all suddenly felt a bit too real despite how incredibly surreal it all was.
Alyssa lifted her phone to her ear, her hand trembling slightly. She shut her eyes and took a few deep breaths. She hated that she got that nervous about the date even just by thinking about it. She hated the effect this all had on her since it wasn’t in her nature to behave that way.
“He’s not above me just because he has money,” she had told Jessica in the morning before leaving to work. She couldn’t stand the fact that she was behaving as if Philip were above her because of his status. Alyssa was a woman with a lot of self-worth and self-confidence, but something about Philip shook all that up and rocked her at her core.
Alyssa listened to the voice mail. He was charming and friendly. Speaking came easily to him and he got straight to the point without coming off as being too blunt or rushed. She wondered how he managed all that and even showed it through something like a voice message. It made her a bit anxious to think she would be the awkward one at the table when they had dinner on Wednesday night.
Since he had asked her to call him back and she very much wanted to know where they would be going in order to prepare for it, she called him back right away.
“Sorry I missed your call,” she blurted out as soon as he answered the phone. “I had a busy day at work.”
“Not a problem, Alyssa.”
He emphasized her name as if to point out to her she had failed to announce who she was before babbling her excuse. She felt like a helpless case of a woman with Philip and it only made the anger she felt about that bubble up to the surface. But she was prudent enough not to take it out on him. After all, it wasn’t his fault she was crumbling in his presence or even just the thought of his presence.
“Right,” she told him feeling the shame crawl over her body. If she was like this over the phone she didn’t want to think of how she would behave with him on their date. “How are you?”
“Great,” he said and she could sense the words ‘now that I’m talking to you’ hanging off his lips, but he didn’t say them.
She could imagine him smiling and she felt her knees wobble a little more. Holding on to the back of her desk chair she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She needed to have better self-control. She wanted to stop wondering why she could already picture his face as they spoke on the phone or ‘sense’ something he wanted to say.
“How was your day? I hope not bad despite how busy it was.”
“Not at all,” she responded as coolly as possible. She wanted to practice speaking to him now on the phone as preparation for their date. She cringed. “Why do I have to practice talking to him?” she wondered. It was all rather unrefined.
“Was there a specific reason you called, Philip? You didn’t say in your message.”
“Oh, yes,” he responded.
His tone had changed slightly and she suddenly fell into a panic. Had she been a bit too harsh? Did she make him feel like she was cutting him off or didn’t have much interest in speaking to him? She didn’t want him to think she was rude. She hadn’t meant to sound like she was pressed for time or ready to get the conversation out of the way. She was only curious about the reason for his call.
“I know this lovely place with a great view of the city. Are you particular about where you eat or what kind of food?”
“No,” Alyssa told him honestly. She was open about to all kinds of food and had a wide variety of tastes. But not knowing meant she couldn’t look the place up online for a better idea of how to dress. She would have to go into it blind and she definitely didn’t want to do that.
“Excellent,” he answered with clear excitement in his voice. “I can have a driver by to pick you up at 7:15p, will that work for you?”
Alyssa’s mouth went dry. Her tongue felt like sandpaper and she couldn’t say anything for a brief moment. A driver? It wasn’t as if it would be her first time being picked up and taken by a driver, but it was a rather odd feeling with it being from her date.
She was unsure if she should readily agree or decline it. Either
way could be perceived as rude. Her mind was a mess of thoughts and she couldn’t sort them out. She wanted to take the driver so she decided to go for it since he offered. She needed to stop worrying so much about how she came off.
“Um,” she said, “Sure.”
“If not, I can set up-”
“Oh,” she interrupted him. She cleared her throat being all too aware she had cut him off mid-sentence. “Oh, it’s not that. I just wasn’t expecting you to send a driver.”
“I see,” he said. “Well, it would be no problem at all. I’d be glad to send him and he knows exactly the location of the restaurant.”
“Right,” she said slowly. “7:15pm will be a great time”.
She wanted to sound enthusiastic without going over the top, but ended up a bit flat. The call ended and she shakily slid down to sit on her desk chair. She held onto the edge of her desk and looked at the wall across from her.
Now it was real.
The time and place had been sent. He was even sending a driver to pick her up. And she still had no idea what to wear.
“Jessica,” she muttered as she grabbed her phone off the surface of her desk and quickly typed out a text message.
“Take me shopping,” she muttered.
Chapter Five
It was finally Wednesday night. Alyssa was ready by 6:45pm and she spent the next 25 minutes anxiously alternating between sitting restlessly on her couch, pacing back and forth, or walking up to her door and then back again.
She constantly checked her phone as if it would make time go faster. Finally, five minutes early, her doorbell rang.
“Just a moment,” she called out before darting into her bedroom to look over her reflection one last time.
She had her hair up in a partial ponytail so that locks of her shiny, blond hair still flowed over her shoulders. Her bangs were swept off to the side framing her pretty face with light makeup, save for subtly smoky eyeliner and light red lips. Her hair flowed beautifully onto the slightly shimmery champagne colored dress that clung sensually to her breasts and wrapped around her slender frame, ending just above the knee to give a teasing peak of her toned thighs. She swiped the gold and black studded clutch from the table next to the front door and opened it.
“Good evening,” she greeted the driver with a smile.
“Good evening, Miss McConnell,” he replied.
He stood off to the side so she could walk out ahead of him. She walked at a slower pace being careful to master her graceful yet confidently sexy walk in her tall pumps that shimmered as the lights of the hallway hit them. She felt classy and attractive without being too over the top. Whether they went somewhere more casual or a bit more on the elegant side, she looked lovely and that was all thanks to Jessica.
Her friend also succeeded in calming Alyssa down, at least a little bit. Although she was definitely more nervous than usual when heading to a first date she felt a little more calm than she had before. If she was going to go out with Philip, even if it only ended up being the one time, she wanted to be herself.
There was no point in creating a persona to mask who she truly was. Like Jessica had pointed out, there was absolutely nothing wrong with who Alyssa was so there was nothing to hide anyway.
The driver pulled open the back door on the passenger’s side and Alyssa slid in, buckling her seat belt as he walked around front. He put up the privacy partition. She heard smooth jazz pumping from the speakers as he drove her toward downtown.
It wasn’t long before they arrived at the city’s main civic center, in the middle of which stood a tall building full of government offices. Alyssa felt confused when the driver pulled around to the front of it and stopped the car. He opened the door and she stepped out. Just as she was about to ask if he was sure he’d gone to the correct place she saw Philip step out from the main lobby of the building.
He was wearing a slate grey suit with a black shirt and tie. His hair was swept back, just as it was at the gala, and his smile made her knees feel wobbly. He walked straight up to her, smile still in place, “Good evening, Alyssa.” He turned and stood right beside her as he offered his arm.
Cautiously, she placed her hand on it and tried to steady herself. She took slow, deep breaths and remembered the words Jessica had used to help calm her down. They stared walking toward the doors of the building and Alyssa slowed down while turning to look at him.
“Why are we going into an office building?”
He chuckled. “I know, it does seem a bit odd, doesn’t it? But I promise you the restaurant at the top floor has delicious food and spectacular views.”
As they continued to walk toward the elevators Alyssa didn’t want to mention she never even knew there was a restaurant in the building. She wondered if that was common knowledge or if it was the sort of place that was only frequented by people of Philip’s status.
The elevator took them straight up to the top floor and opened up to a small welcome room where a man stood at a podium, a closed book in front of him next to a pen. He peered up at them and his expression immediately turned to one that was over the top. He was practically fawning over Philip. Then Alyssa realized she had done something similar up until Jessica calmed her down a bit. Was it just a reaction he brought out in people or was it because of his name?
“Good evening, Mr. Walton. It is always a pleasure to see you,” the man said in a greasy voice that was begging for approval.
He turned to Alyssa and she noticed a slight shift in his expression. He had judgment written all over his face. She could tell he was only going to be extremely cordial with her to look good in front of Philip.
“Good evening, Miss.” He turned back to Philip and smiled before opening the book and checking for the reservation. “Excellent, I shall alert the host you have arrived to escort you to the table.” He smiled again and bowed his head before disappearing behind a door right next to the podium.
Alyssa held back a chuckle at the thought the man was basically a fancy bouncer. She wondered what it was like to stand there all day and be overly polite to the people who visited the restaurant. The man returned with a young woman trailing behind him. She was quite stunning and she looked at Philip as if they knew each other, which made Alyssa feel a little uncomfortable.
It wasn’t that she was jealous or already getting possessive of him, it was just awkward. She saw the way the young woman looked at Philip and she couldn’t help but wonder if anything had ever happened between them. She couldn’t blame the young woman for having an interest in a man like him and she couldn’t blame Philip for finding the her attractive.
With her large and perfectly round breasts, tanned skin, sparkling blue eyes and flowing natural red hair she was a complete knockout. Alyssa tried to look at Philip’s eyes to see if he looked at her in any way other than friendliness, but she couldn’t without being obvious.
“Mr. Walton,” the young woman said in a sultry voice. It was the type of voice you could tell naturally sounded that way, even if she wasn’t trying to be sexy. She smiled at him, two little dimples forming near the corners of her full lips, as she walked up to them.
She got a bit closer to Philip than Alyssa would have expected. Alyssa shifted her weight uncomfortably to her other leg, standing further away from them. Philip turned to look at Alyssa and she could have sworn she detected amusement in his eyes.
“Cassandra,” he said as he returned her smile and then took a step sideways to stand closer to Alyssa. “This is Alyssa, my date for the night.”
Cassandra turned to look at Alyssa and smiled. It looked genuine, but Alyssa was too busy making up scenarios in which the young woman secretly hated her to fully realize it. She returned a tight-lipped smile and automatically stuck her hand out for a shake. Cassandra rather awkwardly took it and shook her hand before turning around and leading them to the best table in the place.
It was a table for two, slightly removed from the rest of the room and offered a stunning panoramic view of the
city. As the sun had already set the lights were on, casting a glittery visage over everything. Cassandra excused herself, but not before gently pressing her hand to the table right near Philip. Alyssa caught it. It was the professional equivalent of her pressing her hand to his arm. She gulped and looked out the window some more as she tried to push away her negative thoughts and feelings.
“You don’t much like Cassandra, do you?” Philip asked bluntly. His eyes locked onto her face as he studied her reaction.
Alyssa turned to look at him with wide eyes. She didn’t think many people would have gone straight for asking such a direct question and confronting her about it. Only it didn’t sound like a scathing accusation by any measure. He just sounded curious. It was clear he had simply made an observation and was now asking her about it.
“I can’t say I dislike her,” Alyssa answered truthfully while trying to avoid the fact that she felt awkward. She was usually very laid-back and confident. But there was something about Philip that set off reactions in her she didn’t know what to make of. She was quickly growing tired of it. Even with Jessica having calmed her down before she left, new worries kept arising and her mind. And the more she focused on needing to calm down, the more she nervous she got.
